A new flagship daily news show takes Stuff’s young audiences to “what everyone’s talking about”.

And the New Zealand publisher has found the audio product can be as addictive as it is essential, reaching a younger, often news-avoidant audience.

In an INMA blog, head of life media Sarah Stuart says Stuff group had found its podcast groove relatively early, when its 2020 true-crime thriller Black Hands became a global sensation, and with close to eight million downloads.

A string of other award-winning long-form podcasts have followed, and by 2023, as the country’s largest digital news platform, Stuff was ready to launch a much bigger audio business.

“What it wanted was a flagship daily news show,” she says. “The challenge we set was to attract a younger, often news-avoidant audience with a news experience like no other that combined social media, digital and print articles, the daily show, vertical video, and news-driven specials, creating a standalone, brand-led new vertical.”

Newsable launched in March 2023 with a focus on the often hard-to-reach 25-40 age group. “Intentionally fun and quirky but with all of the essential news the audience needed, the 20-minute podcast dropped at 6 am each day, followed by articles, the vertical video format Stuff Shorts, social media posts, and teasers for the show delivered across Stuff’s large brand portfolio of digital mastheads, magazines, newspapers, and community platform Neighbourly,” she says.

Head of audio Laura Heathcote says the aim was to create a “refreshing alternative” to traditional news formats. “From our bold brand design to our social approach and the stories we selected, we ensured we had leadership and input at every stage from Gen Z.”

The tagline was simple – Newsable would be all about what everyone’s talking about, and to appeal to a younger audience, Newsable hired young, approachable Gen Z journalists.

From day one, Newsable was news that had not been heard before. Guests could be the prime minister or a celebrity comedian, linked by hard news, human interest, pop culture, analysis, and hot takes.

The power of Stuff’s multi-platforms, including stuff.co.nz – which has the largest news audience in New Zealand – created an immediate buzz. “The listeners were the exact demographic Newsable was aiming for,” Stuart says.

According to Spotify, 45 per cent of Newsable’s audience is aged 18-34, a truly young audience attracted by Newsable’s mix of personality, humour, and hard news. Breaking news became some of the podcast’s most popular listens: the team developed a strategy to deliver fast-twitch bonus shortcasts when significant live news events were happening, from election results to major court cases and sporting finals.

The accompanying text stories and short-form videos also brought in millions of views, and Stuff’s vast network of journalists used the podcast to highlight their own exclusives and interviews.

On Apple’s podcast platform, Newsable was No. 1 in the Apple new category, No. 2 in Apple Daily News, and reached No. 3 overall.

 “This is an audience that loves innovation, surprise, and delight as well as an intelligent take on the news,” Heathcote says. “What’s great about Newsable is that we are constantly looking for the new.

“Standing still is not an option, which is as much fun for us as it is for the audience.”